you should go and love yourself

I used to HATE my muscles.

I always thought I had big thighs.

Then +50 pounds at 40 weeks & 3 days pregnant I looked back at pictures and missed my muscley legs and flat belly.

Then after losing my baby weight I hated my stretch marks.

The cycle is seriously never ending...

If you haven’t caught on, we will always have something that we hate or want to change about our bodies. If we have curly hair we want straight hair. Straight hair? I wish I had curly hair.. amiright?!?

The issue here isn’t our bodies.. it’s our mentality towards our bodies. And it’s the fact that no matter how your body looks or what you have or don’t have doesn’t not make a flippin difference on your happiness. It starts with your mind, it's a choice that you make. I feel like I have finally become the most comfortable I’ve ever been in my own skin after learning this. LOVE YOURSELF. Something you hate about yourself could mean beauty to someone else. This is 25 years of life. I have grown, gained weight, lost weight, grown a human in my belly and birthed it. My body allows me to be on my feet for hours at work. I can run. I can carry a toddler who is half my size around... I mean our bodies are truly miraculous!

If you can’t be happy with yourself the way you are right now I promise you you won’t ever be satisfied with it. There will always be something more that you need, something else that needs to be changed. I think so many times we set a goal out in front of us and think to ourselves when I lose this weight, when I look like this or when I get this thing -then I will be happy- whatever the case may be you will end in disappointment. You have got to learn to love yourself now. Enjoy where you are at and what you have now. Set goals, but allow yourself to enjoy the process getting to it. If you don’t you are committing self sabotage. Once you get to the goal, if you do, you will not only find whatever next thing you need to fix but also you’ll look back and regret all the time you spent unhappy for absolutely no reason. You are much more likely to reach that goal loving yourself than beating yourself up.

A great challenge (thanks BG) that really changed my mindset is this..

-Take something that you typically cover up or fix on yourself for one day and leave it. Leave it alone the whole day.

*if you about it and looking for some mind and body health inspo follow him on fb at Braxton Gilbert Fitness and no this isn't a paid or sponsored ad he’s just so helpful and knows his stuff* 😜

For me, it was my smile line that I always try to fix when my makeup sinks into it. A smile line. From smiling. And laughing. And being happy. I literally can’t even. We are so harsh to ourselves sometimes!

Anyway, I did this and I realized that the day still went on. People still talked to me. My family and friends still loved me. And quite honestly the biggest thing of all, I noticed that absolutely no one else even was concerned with it. And guess what, I really don’t even give a crap about it now! It’s so funny how we magnify our own imperfections when in all reality they go unseen by most everyone else.

Moral of the story, love yourself. Because if you can’t who will. Confidence, kindness and love are the most attractive things in a human. Not perfection. Be real. Be authentic. Be you! Because you’re beautiful just the way you are.

You should most definitely always be looking to better yourself not because you hate who you are or how you look, but because you love yourself enough to want to learn and grow and take care of yourself. If you can't find happiness in who you are now, you will always suffer. God created every inch of you. He knows every hair on your head, he knows every scar, every wrinkle. And he calls you worthy. Beautiful. Loved. You know why? Because you are! Just how you are right this second. Nothing shines brighter than a woman who has confidence and loves herself. And that vibrancy spreads, so go love yourself and teach others to do the same!

Always be growing, always be blooming 🌸